In an effort to increase access to health care services for vulnerable children in the community, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors gave the Health Services Agency the thumbs on Tuesday to accept $1.3 million in funding to establish the Child Health Access Program.

Services offered through CHAP will be provided by HSA through its clinics in Turlock, Modesto, Ceres, Hughson and Empire. The HSA Momobile will also provide services at Chrysler School, Del Rio Mobile Home Park, Shackleford School and Orville Wright School.

Patients will have access to primary and preventive medical care, ambulatory specialty care, pharmaceuticals, lab, X-ray and rehabilitation services.

While not an insurance plan, CHAP targets Stanislaus County children ages 0 to 5 who live in families with incomes at or below 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Leval and who do not qualify for government health insurance programs such as Medi-Cal or Healthy Families.

Although an estimated 10,000 children in the county are currently eligible for such programs, they are not enrolled.

According to Mary Ann Lee, associate director HSA’s managed care division, many parents of these children may be unaware of the available programs out there, or they may erroneously believe that their children are not eligible.

“There are a number of perceived barriers,” she said. “Some may be concerned about their immigration status.”

Deterred by misinformation and frightened of bureaucracy, parents with uninsured and underinsured children usually receive no care or limited care even when their children’s health conditions become life threatening.

The idea of CHAP is not to replace Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, said Lee. Rather, the program hopes to act as a gateway to other programs for which these children may be eligible.

“Maybe this is the way to capture them,” said Supervisor Pat Paul.

To do that, HSA will work with employees of various local agencies and organizations such as school districts, Health Families and WIC (Women, Infants and Children) programs and other outreach workers who already have access to families in need.

The idea is to get these families to apply for other government programs while their children are being cared for. Therefore, eligibility screening will take place at the clinics.

“We want to engage their attention, but we also want to emphasize preventive care,” Lee said.

Income eligibility for the program will be based on the parents’ own self-declaration, explained Lee.

“We won’t be asking for any documents,” she said, although Stanislaus County residency will be required.

Other outreach efforts will include developing, producing and distributing promotional materials such as placing advertisements in foreign language stations and newspapers. Staff members will also make presentations to various organizations to promote and explain the program.

CHAP is set to begin Jan. 1, 2003, as a three-year pilot program. Subsequent funding for the program is estimated at $3.2 million for the second year and $3.6 million for the third year.

Reprinted by permission of the Turlock Journal.